Tuesday, Jan 15, 2013
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Shuaa Capital (SHUAA.DFM), an investment bank that is still recovering from the financial crisis, said it is applying for an Islamic license amid a recent push by Dubai to strengthen its credentials as a regional centre for sharia-compliant finance.
Shuaa is in talks with the United Arab Emirates Central Bank about a license for its subsidiary Gulf Finance Corporation, a lender to small-and medium-sized businesses, or SMEs, according to an emailed statement. The application should be finalized by the end of this quarter as the business aims to be operational in the spring of this year, Shuaa said.
Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, earlier this month said the emirate aims to be "the global capital of the Islamic economy" by launching a series of new products and services in this rapidly-growing segment of global finance.
"As SMEs represent over 50% of the country's GDP, 80% of employment, and account for over 90% of non-oil exports but only receive around 4% of bank lending, it will be important to their growth to facilitate access to more sharia-compliant financing," said Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum, Shuaa's executive chairman.
"While large corporates and banks as well as the government sector have good access to sharia-compliant financing and the retail market is served by several Islamic banks, there is a major gap of Islamic finance available to SMEs at present," he said.
Shuaa shares closed trading Tuesday down 0.5% at AED0.572.
Write to Nicolas Parasie at nicolas.parasie@dowjones.com
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15-01-13 1051GMT
